They are just weak drones, with the earth one being probably the best. But the higher you go, the less effective they become. I mean you have to invest a whole line in order to control them properly. And Shaman spells are pretty useless, with the exception of eagles aim buff and heal buff. There is no reason to take a Shaman over a WP based mage, since they actually have a low cost "heal".

You are seeing it wrong, there is nothing in the game that forces you to be a shaman. Whit that being said, Shaman spells and spirits are more of an suport, and i found them to be usefull, still, you shouldn't focus in being only a shaman

In this particular campagin, shamans are not viatal. I played the entire game without one cept the missions I was given one. I would certainly hope for players to design campagins which were more centered for other classes. In Dead Mans Switch, all you need is Decking and guns to get everything you can. Gun variety is also trivial as the senarios for combat are rarely at long range for more than a round, there are very few situations where Shotgun spread is useful and I never bothered with pistols unless their was no choice.

Just tested, the summons you get from the fetish can only be summoned 1 at a time. Also they didnt start with 4 AP, just 1 AP but you can load 4 on it easily. But having only 1 summon at at ime seems weak, rather have two drones instead.

I think Shamans would be a lot better class type if it possessed the heal spell simliar to mage. I know they didnt give a direct heal spell simply because it would make the content even more trivial, but still shamans not healing seems...funny.

1. Shamans get a healing totem. It's an AoE heal.2. Having 5 AP with a 4 AP pet at the same time is OP.3. You need to spec into either guns or spellcasting for offensive damage. Obviously.4. Anybody that brings up Decking should be ignored. The game provides Deckers for the missions they're needed and the entire tree is otherwise worthless.

I played a summon-focused shaman, with a little conjuring, and just enough rifle to defend myself.

It went great! The beefy spirits I'd summon were even deadlier than my hired runners, and they came with great buffs for the rest of the party as well. Being able to plant cover wherever I wanted it was cool and helpful too. I even tricked some guys into running through my lightning barrier a couple times, by clogging doorways with it out of their line of sight; so they'd run in to get me and end up passing through two or three lightning-filled spaces, losing 7 HP per space.

It's true that the shaman doesn't get as many cool spells as the mage, but you gotta remember; the shaman does all his magic -through- spirits. You summon a spirit, and then the -spirit- casts all the cool spells.I didn't so much notice the lack of a heal spell, 'cause I chose Bear totem, which is an AOE heal.

Also cool: In the final battle, I lost control of my spirits twice. This left me free to summon another spirit, while the rogue spirits lashed out at whoever was nearest. This was an immense advantage as long as I made sure to keep my guys away, the spirits reliably attacked/distracted my enemies.

The problem is you can only summon 1 spirit at a time. Where as Drones you can summon and use two at a time, and both have 4 AP and hit very hard and very often. I mean you have to invest deep into the CHR line and summon control (A whole line which does nothing but help with summon control, a single summon, control). I think honestly that conjuration and summon control shoudl be one line.

They aren't all bad. Haste and Fog are both very useful. The summons can be annoying when they break at low points, especially the higher tier ones but overall I found they made most battles far easier than when I didn't summon them. That being said I did my first playthrough as a Shaman. Now to try something different, street samurai or an adept perhaps...